NEDA Board to allow 100% foreign contractors to build infra projects

One hundred percent foreign-owned contractors can participate in Philippine infrastructure projects, with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board set to release a new foreign investment negative list (FINL) next March.

NEDA chief and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said he has signed a draft FINL that needs to be approved by the NEDA Board chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“I just signed one that is going to be submitted to the NEDA board for approval ... The schedule, I think, is tentatively March 6,” Pernia told reporters in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the Makati Business Club-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry joint membership meeting in Makati City on Wednesday.

The contractors sector is not on the negative list, he said.

FINL is a comprehensive list of activities and sectors which are off limits to foreign investors.

Pernia noted that 100 percent foreign contractor participation will be allowed in “foreign-funded” projects under the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program where projects will mostly be financed by loans and official development assistance from China and Japan.

For locally-funded projects, the 40-percent foreign participation limit is still applicable, he said.

Also not on the upcoming FINL are foreign professors who teach courses that do not require board exams or bar exams, the Cabinet official said.

The draft FINL will still be reviewed by concerned agencies before the list is presented during the next NEDA Board meeting, scheduled on March 6. —VDS, GMA News